


A Good Thing (Right Under Our Noses Remix)

by navaan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, POV Female Character, POV Outsider, Remix, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29606169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Natasha watches everyone closely. She can't fail to see the signs that something is going on between Stark and Rogers.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 89
Collections: 2021 Captain America/Iron Man Remix Madness





	A Good Thing (Right Under Our Noses Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ishipallthings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipallthings/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Something Real Good Going On](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27794194) by [ishipallthings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipallthings/pseuds/ishipallthings). 
  * In response to a prompt by [ishipallthings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipallthings/pseuds/ishipallthings) in the [2021_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2021_Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness) collection. 



> A Remix of [**Something Real Good Going On**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27794194) (1907 words) by [**ishipallthings**](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipallthings). It's super sweet and you should read it right now! ♥

Natasha watches her teammates as closely as she would any target. 

Before she joined SHIELD she’d been a lone wolf, trained to not form attachments, watch her own back, and stay alert. With a team, her training benefits her in ways that one of her Red Room mentors could have ever foreseen. Teams don’t need to be well-oiled machines but they benefit from team building, from trust, from little conflicts being resolved before they tear the structure apart. She has learned most of what she knows about teams from watching Fury organize his agents, from working with Clint — from becoming a tentative part of Clint’s family. Clint and Laura allowed her into that secret part of Clint’s life based on faith “paid forward” at a time when they had no reason to put their belief in her yet. 

Perhaps that’s why Natasha equates those things: Team, partnership, trust and family.

With the Avengers things are complex, sometimes difficult, but no different. 

They are a bunch of people thrown together by circumstance — but there’s trust, there are bonds of friendship and protectiveness. Sometimes the pieces of this new family gel well and sometimes they need a bit of help to fall into place.

That’s why she watches — Bruce finding his quiet time and developing routines, Clint slipping in and out as he sees fit but spending time with everyone during training and downtime, Stark chattering and loudly talking to everyone and no-one to hide how often he works around all of them quietly, Rogers, training too much but grateful for every bit of group time. 

It’s no wonder she notices it long before Stark does — the way Rogers’ eyes follow him around the kitchen while he discusses quantum mechanics with Bruce and how Rogers follows him down to the workshop without prompting a few times after team breakfast that week.

“What are you pondering? Tough nut to crack?” Clint asks, leaning over the table to steal half of her peanut butter sandwich. He’s in gear, ready to leave. Laura will be happy to have him back on the farm for some downtime.

“Cap’s type,” she says dead-pan.

“Why? Are you interested in Cap?”

She shrugs. 

“Ah, ah, ah, Nat,” Clint says, knowing her a little too well to fall for the blatant misdirection. “Don’t try to set him up. Give the guy a break. Brave new world. He’ll figure it out in time when he’s ready to date and then you can still introduce him to a nice SHIELD agent…”

She shrugs again but smirks. 

She has a feeling Rogers’ is already figuring it out. Her worry is that Stark will be too caught up in himself and his protective layers of armored personality to notice.

* * *

The worries, it turns out, are unfounded.

They sit together at the table while Director Fury gives them the mission debrief, standing beside Steve who is wearing a stern expression and the new Captain America uniform. For a Tony Stark design it’s surprisingly functional — and form-fitting in just the right places.

The right places that Stark’s eyes have been glued to for the past three minutes straight.

Natasha thinks it wouldn’t be beyond Tony to design a uniform just so he can ogle Cap’s ass. 

“Is that right, Stark?” Fury asks. 

“Right,” Tony says, answering without looking at Fury. Perhaps he has no idea what was just said.

Cap smiles at him mildly and something unspoken — and frail — passes between them.

Ah.

They have already figured it out then.

Natasha hopes they can navigate it without too much trouble. She knows way too much about Stark’s relationship history to be confident just yet. And Rogers — for an all-American boy scout he can be overly dramatic. 

She will have to watch closely and make sure they didn't mess up.

* * *

Rhodes looks at her as if she’s grown two heads, when she asks: “Since when are they dating?”

“What?”

“Rogers and Stark? Since when?”

“They are? How did Tony finally muster up the courage?”

“Aha,” she says and stares at Rhodes intently, trying to gauge if he really doesn’t know more and has been following the same leads she’d been following — or if he’s the loyal friend playing along because Stark asked him to.

“Are they sleeping with each other, you think?”

He nearly spits his coffee across the table.

That’s answer enough about how much information Rhodes can give her.

* * *

The real question is answered by the end of the week when Tony struts into the kitchen in jeans and a t-shirt that’s maybe one size too big.

“Nice shirt,” she comments, recognizing the color and fit to be the one Steve wore the evening before

“Comfy,” Tony says neutrally and pours himself some coffee. 

“I bet,” she says and leers, watches him squirm, and take a sip of his coffee. 

Tony’s perhaps the most cautious around her — always a bit suspicious of Natasha's intentions since their first encounter. But they do read each other well, fumbling their way towards a cautious friendship based on unspoken understanding. When they exchange a glance, and Tony only manages to school his features into neutrality at the last second, Nat knows everything. 

Namely, she knows, he knows that she knows now.

She winks and leaves him to digest that.

* * *

When they announce their engagement, Natasha is the first to congratulate them and in no way taken by surprise by the news.


End file.
